Your money may go down as well as up

 Here's a cautionary tale that fits the 'maximising' theme. Fortunately it's one I'm pleased to report worked out well for us! It means today's bite is a bit retrospective as it's what I did yesterday, but still...

As the day approaches when we're due to take our break and go abroad for the first time since lockdowns started I need to order the currency for our trip.

Normally I have an amount stored as the best deals are for larger amounts and, up till 2020, we went away more than once a year it was worth ordering more than one trip required to get a preferential rate. It also helped if we were about to see our Italian 'branch' and there were birthdays or Christmas approaching so that we could give them cash for the occasions to take home and spend if that was what they chose.

Month 4 - Bite 29

I tried to buy my Euros online, but met with a computer glitch so I popped down to town to buy them in person. I was horrified to find out that the difference between online and in person would cost me about 30 Euros so returned home and tried the computer again.

As luck would have it the computer was with me this time and co-operated. All I had to do was go back to the very same Bureau de Change I visited this morning and pick up the cash at the better rate.

Having read that the pound was having a bit of a moment (!) I went online this morning to see what had happened to it and saw that now I would have got another 20 Euros less than I did yesterday...

Just goes to show that timing, research and a bit of luck can make a big difference. So now I'm about to write in the diary about a month from when we're considering going abroad again to make sure I learn from this experience and start checking currency exchange rates early...